Hendrick Street Hotel Development
The Hendrick, in Dublin's Smithfield, is our first pod style hotel for Dublin Loft Company. The building is a modern take on Dublin's traditional Georgian era architecture featuring vertical windows with articulated reveals set in red brick. Non-traditional elements are the recessed mortar joints, tripe soldier courses and projecting brick pattern at cornice level. The plots 6-11 Hendrick Street are traced on the facade as recesses re-imagining the original fine grain development of the street. The building deals with the problem of inserting new development into Dublin's historic core as the city strives for higher, more sustainable density. It lies between the classical set-piece of the King's Inn and Smithfield's modern piazza.
Our clients are the third generation of the Cosgrave family to develop Dublin. This was their first hotel. Inspired by their family history of developing the city, and Dublin's Georgian heritage, their brief to us was to design a modern vernacular for our city.
The site for the hotel had a number of constraints namely;
- it had only one street elevation to Hendrick Street. the three other elevations would have to be party / blank walls.
- immediately adjacent the site to the west is a three storey protected structure in poor repair
- immediately adjacent the site to the east is an undertaker's yard.
- Dublin's Development Plan envisages all new development to be 6-8 storey to attain a more sustainable density for the city
To overcome these constraints;
- a courtyard is created in the centre of the site to get natural light to all rooms.
- the blank walls on the north, east and west elevations are treated as an abstraction of the main facade composition.
- the building is stepped down and back from six to four storeys adjacent the protected structure
Originally the site contained a Georgian terrace of six houses. Like many buildings of the period these collapsed one by one. The site lay vacant and was rumoured to be haunted. The plots of 6-11 Hendrick Street are traced on the facade as recesses re-imagining the original fine grain development of the street.
The facade features vertical windows with articulated reveals set in red brick. A handmade brick, Ibstock Birtley, was chosen for its' weathered appearance. Non-traditional treatments are the recessed mortar joints, triple soldier courses and the projecting brick pattern at cornice level. Flamed Basalt cladding at ground level was also chosen for its' less polished finish.
The Hendrick is Ireland's first LEED Gold Hotel.
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